Vascular Plants Lesson

Lesson 3

Seedless Vascular Plants

Diversity of Seedless Vascular Plants

• Club mosses, also called spike mosses, and

ferns compose the seedless vascular plant group.

• Some seedless vascular plants have a strobilus in their sporophyte – a cluster of spore-bearing
structures.

Seedless Vascular Plants
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Multiple Select

Select all plant groups that are seedless vascular.

• mosses

• horsetails

• hornworts

• club mosses

• ferns

Multiple Choice

Which two characteristics are shared by seedless vascular and nonvascular plants?

• They both have xylem and phloem tissue to transport nutrients and water.

• They both have true stems, leaves, and roots.

• They both live in moist environments and use spores to reproduce.

Diversity of Seedless Vascular Plants

Division Lycophyta

• Descendent from the oldest group of vascular plants

• Sporophyte generation of lycophytes is dominant

• Have roots, stems, and small, scaly, leaflike structures

• Many species are epiphytes – plants that live anchored to an object or another plant.

Seedless Vascular Plants
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Multiple Choice

Seedless vascular plants have real roots, stems and leaves.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Which generation is dominant in lycophytes

• Gametophyte generation

• Sporophyte generation

Diversity of Seedless Vascular Plants

Division Pterophyta

• Includes ferns and horsetails

• Most abundant plants during the Carboniferous period (300-359 mya)

• Sporophyte produces roots and thick underground stem called a rhizome, a food-storage organ.

Seedless Vascular Plants
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Multiple Select

Which two plant types can be found in the Division Pterophyta?

• Ferns

• Mosses

• Liverworts

• Horsetails

Multiple Choice

What is a rhizome?

• Food storage stem

• Food storage root

Diversity of Seedless Vascular Plants

Division Pterophyta

• The familiar leafy fern fronds are the sporophyte generation

• Fern spores form in a structure called a sporangium.

• Clusters of sporangia form a sorus.

• Sori usually are located on the undersides of fronds.

Seedless Vascular Plants
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Multiple Choice

Sori of ferns are located on the underside of fronds.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Ferns produce spores in specialized structures called ______________.

• fruiting bodies

• seeds

• sporangium

• capsules